When Mexico lost California to the US, General Vallejo lost his official position as Comandante of California Norte – but master strategist Vallejo quickly became a US citizen, a California senator, and spring water supplier to the city of Sonoma. His estate was called Lachryma Montis (Latin for "Tears of the Mountain" and a translation of its original Native name, Chiucuyem), after its natural spring. The Carpenter's Gothic-Victorian home he built next to the spring remained in the family until 1933, when the state of California bought it as a museum.
As a general born to a military family in Monterey, California, Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo knew that real power in California is held by whomever controls the water – and Vallejo made more money piping clean, drinkable water to downtown Sonoma than he did as Comandante. The service he provided was so invaluable that Vallejo was elected one of California's first state senators in 1850.
His stately home was outfitted with every comfort, including marble fireplaces in every room, a grand piano for entertaining, and a 12,000-book library. But it also reveals Vallejo's forward-thinking ideas: mudbrick-insulated walls that stayed warm in winter and cool in summer, a barn built of prefabricated timbers and recycled bricks, and comfortable houses for his estate staff. Today a bicycle path leads to the house, a half-mile from downtown. Tours are at 1pm, 2pm and 3pm Saturday and Sunday.
